Light on the Separation from God

bySean

You wonder sometimes what the separation is, and why it is our condition, or seems to be, and what life will look like when it ends. It’s a good question. Our separation from God is what we are trying to solve, or resolve. Or dissolve maybe. When that separation ends, the journey ends too. Our long sufferance is diffused into joy.

The temptation in talking about separation is to regurgitate the mythology of A Course in Miracles. But that’s tricky, because we always want to take it literally. Or else we get bogged down in the metaphysics, like wading through heavy mud.

Literal translations of what are meant to be helpful stories, and metaphysical knot-tying, are really just tools for keeping salvation far away and inaccessible.

So what is the separation? How do we make contact with it? And, importantly, what can we do to facilitate its demise?

A Course in Miracles says that we are “at home in God, dreaming of exile, but perfectly capable of awakening to reality (T-10.I.2:1).”

That is a nice image: we are asleep in heaven, dreaming we are in hell. So all that one has to do is wake up from the dream. There’s nothing to be done in the dream itself. The dream is the level of illusion. The Cause of awakening does not reside there.

The Son is the Effect, whose Cause he would deny. And so he seems to be the cause, producing real effects. Nothing can have effects without a cause, and to confuse the two is merely to fail to understand them both (T-21.II.10:6-8).

If we could see the truth of this, it would instantly liberate us: we live in the dream of separation, and there is nothing inside that dream that we can do to end it. The action takes place at another level, internally. There are other powers, other energies.

At some point, human beings – or consciousness, if you like – took a wrong turn. We differentiated ourselves from our environment: the flowers, the trees, the buffalo, the people, the stars. We decided all that was out there and that we were a perceptive center. Naturally this made us feel special. We began to feel entitled. We wanted more. And we wanted better.

[f]ragmentation . . . originates in thought – it is thought which divides everything up. Every division we make is a result of how we think. In actuality, the whole world is shades merging into one. But we select certain things and separate them from others – for convenience, at first. Later we give this separation great importance. We set up separate nations, which is entirely the result of our thinking, and then we begin to give them supreme importance. We also divide religions by thought – separate religions are entirely a result of how we think. And in the family, the divisions are in thought. The whole way the family is set up is due to the way we think about it (On Dialogue, 10).

The problem, of course, is that being alone in this way is dishonest and illusory. Thus, at the ontological level, it is terrifying. And it is way less satisfying than being one with stars and tulips and sleepy babies and turtles sunning themselves on logs.

In a way, we set our tiny selves up as rulers only to learn that we had given up the only Kingdom there is.

Rather than face head on this fear and dissatisfaction and re-embrace Oneness, we double down on separation. We continue to deny reality and we begin to project our fear outside, out there. This is the ego, the false self that insists on specialness and opposes God, and thus anchors our separation.

Exclusion and separation are synonymous . . . We have said before that the separation was and is dissociation, and that once it occurs projection becomes its main defense, or the device that keeps it going (T-6.II.1:4-5).

This dissociation inevitably leads to conflict. We want to become better than what was One – stronger, faster, smarter, bigger, more powerful. We want to triumph over what we had abandoned. We begin to concentrate on improving ourselves: our appearance, our belief systems, our weapons, our medicine, our stories.

What you project you disown, and therefore do not believe is yours. You are excluding yourself by the very judgment that you are different from the one on whom you project . . . projection will always hurt you. It reinforces you belief in your own split mind . . . (T-6.II.2:1-2, 3:1-2).

The focus is not on being but on becoming. And that is how the idea of time is made and sustained: one needed a future into which one could project their imminent perfection and a past at which they could look back on and judge as “less than.”

This happened. We did this. And projection became our default mode of perception. And time just kept on segmenting. This is how the Course can say that the separation “occurred over millions of years (T-2.VIII.2:5).

In time, we forgot that the separation was simply a decision that we made – a way of thinking at odds with reality. Oneness became the dimmest of dim memories, a state that belonged only to rare human beings who had attained superhuman spiritual insights. We made God cruel and indifferent. And as our anguish and guilt predictably deepened, we passed in on to the external world through projection. The problem was never within us – it was never our mode of perception – but always some imperfection or flaw in the external world.

And in a way, this worked. We built bigger and better cities. We beat back plagues and infant mortality rates. We tripled our life spans. We crossed the ocean and flew to the moon. We invented money, and six-string guitars, and representative democracy, and water purification filters, and cheese-flavored popcorn.

On the surface of it, there is so much for which to be grateful!

But of course we remain broken. We remain miserable and unsatisfied. The “God-shaped hole” that Sartre noticed yawns wider and wider. We yearn for inner peace. All this might be very subtle, barely noticeable, but it is there. It is the essence of our human condition. Deep down we sense we are as grand as moonlight, as deep as the sea, as strong as a mountain, and yet our lives appear to be a struggle with suffering until we admit defeat and die into darkness . . .

What is whole has everything and so never knows yearning. But what is separated from wholeness knows only lack and scarcity. That is the condition of those who sleep and dream of hell. That is the itch we gave birth to eons ago and have never managed to scratch.

And it will only get worse. Consider:

We have tried education but all that learning has not saved us. We are smart but we are hardly wise. We build cars that go 120 miles per hour and set the speed limit at 65. Five hundred years ago we killed each other with axes and clubs and now we have nuclear weapons – we can eliminate all life forever – and we call it progress. We call it safety. Where is the wisdom in that?

We tried wealth but that hasn’t worked. The emptiness we are talking about cannot be filled with fancy cars and elaborate houses and designer label clothing. Saving for retirement isn’t the worst thing in the world but it won’t restore wholeness. We still hurt each other. We still gorge on food we don’t need. Money brings out the worst in us, not what is wise.

And even religion has failed us. Jesus said two thousand years ago that “the kingdom of God is at hand” and “love they neighbor as thyself” and where are we? Twenty five hundred years of Buddha, two thousand of Jesus, five hundred years since the enlightenment, a century and a half of Thoreau, fifty years of Gandhi and Martin Luther King . . . where are we?

Part of coming to terms with the separation from God is accepting that there is no external system that is going to save us. Not A Course in Miracles, not the law of attraction, not a rigorous study of David Bohm. We have to see this. We are beyond systems now. We build these systems with the separated mind and all they beget is more separation.

I think you and I can see this if we look closely at what we call live and don’t shy away from what is uncomfortable or scary.

The separation is really no more than a habitual mode of thinking that privileges the egoic self over Oneness. It is a way of thinking that manages to screw everything up while simultaneously denying that it’s doing anything. The problem is always out there: if we could only elect a different politician, or persuade people to become voluntarily poor, or stop eating meat, or become celibate, or follow Jesus . . .

This is why the Course says over and over that salvation is literally nothing more than the recognition that we are doing all of this to ourselves.

The secret to salvation is but this: that you are doing this unto yourself. No matter what the form of the attack, this is still true. Whoever takes the role of enemy and of attacker, still is this the truth. Whatever seems to be the cause of any pain and suffering you feel, this is still true. For you would not react at all to figures in a dream you knew that you were dreaming. Let them be as hateful and as vicious as they may, they could have no effect on you unless you failed to recognize it is your dream (T-27.VIII.10:1-6).

Salvation is the return to wholeness. It is the end of separation. It is literally a shift in thinking, a new paradigm in the structure and movement of thought.

If you look at the workbook lessons of A Course in Miracles, they are almost never taxing or demanding. You don’t have to crawl across cut glass. You don’t have to stay in one position for six hours. You don’t have to tithe or cut off your hands or confess all your supposed sins.

They simply ask that we devote some consistent time and energy to a shift in our thinking.

The purpose of the workbook is to train your mind in a systematic way to a different perception of everyone and everything in the world. The exercises are planned to help you generalize the lessons, so that you will understand that each of them is equally applicable to everyone and everything you see (W-In.4:1-2).

The Course insists that there is a space beyond the familiar structure of our thinking that we can access and that accessing it will transform all life as we know it.

What is beyond thought? Can we be still enough to find out? Devoted enough? Everything comes down to this!

The whole premise of ACIM is that yes, we can go beyond thought’s limitations. Quite easily actually. It is very practical in this regard. It is very simple and clear: do this, then do that. We don’t even have to believe in it. We just have to be willing.

And gradually, as we practice, the belief system of separation is replaced by Oneness. This is in the nature of a return, a sudden awareness of what was given to us by God, and how that gift remains pure and whole and true right here right now.

All I can tell you of my experience in this regard is that when it happens it is like everything becomes suddenly very pristine and silent. It is like a fine smooth icicle in pure sunlight. Thought is not there. And nothing is that isn’t God.

But it ends as soon as thought enters and says: I want this experience to be mine! To be Sean’s! As soon as I remember “me” and try to clutch experience to the self – to possess it, own it, manipulate it – it ends.

Oneness is what is – the given – and separation is the thought that reaches in and tries to make what is whole and One fragmented and many.

We can observe this movement in our thoughts if we are attentive. If we watch them – how they arise, what they do, where they go, what they ask of us, how we respond – we can see how they make time real and how they shift us away from being to becoming.

It feels very natural to us to be in time and to be devoted to becoming, to self-improvement, but as we begin to experience the alternative, we see that in fact it is separation and fragmentation that are deeply unnatural. The calm stillness of inner peace – lit by the Christ inherent in all of us – is our true natural state.

All this can seem very mystical and abstract, but it is not. We are living the separation right this very moment, and we can choose to live the alternative right now too.

When we do that, we see how thought is illusory – and how perception is illusory – how thin and wispy it is when compared to reality. And so naturally – and readily – we choose to return to God.

I like what you said about various external approaches that we use – as instruments- in finding the Truth. That, ‘ We are beyond systems now. We build these systems with the separated mind and all they beget is more separation’. Whether it is Zen, Buddhism, Bible, A Course in Miracles or any other path, I see it – serving. Yes, they are all valuable. But they are still only the instruments (waymarks for the mind) that help us connect with our Soul. They are the signs, we are the path. Seemingly and most of the time (at least from the mind’s * egoic perspective), – a pathless path we are, empty and vague, vast land:) But our Soul finds its way in the Unknown, even when our mind cannot comprehend its ways or write a map of its trajectory. I don’t remember where I read it, it says – The mind is a good servant, and a bad master. It is our Hearts to turn to when in doubt, for they are our kindest and bravest parts.
All of those teachings say that there is something wrong with us, with our mind. They show us how we are all (by our choice) separated from –seeing – the Truth. After acknowledging that separation -, we endure painful period of being AGAIN separated from ourselves – this time, from the ego we thought we are. So much separation. When do we choose Love? Isn’t Love our True Connection, out Pathless Path uniting all Paths? In one moment, we must choose – unity, or else what is it all about? We have to accept unity of Higher Mind and Mind, of Soul and Self, if we are to experience unity – here and now:) It is the unity (acceptance) of ourselves, that is needed. So often it seems that we ‘hate’ our poor ego (struggling for life), and desperately want to destroy it – for us to become better, perfect. In reality, with hating it (ego), we are feeding the poor thing enormously, as it is always hungry for more – Love. Perhaps we just have to see it, understand it and allow it – to live. Perhaps our love will en-lighten it. Perhaps there is nothing to be – destroyed (first law of thermodynamics), just transformed, en-lightened. Perhaps we just have to Love everything in us, even that Hunger, and not be enslaved by it. Cause we are enslaved, when we dislike it and fear seeing it in us. Let it be. Sometimes getting too apsorbed by a teaching, can lead a man into – a battle for perfection. I think it is good (and necessary) to fight against your ego – with everything you have – till one point. Then one has to stop with the battle. And let go. Because you realize that as long as you fight it /mind it, it (ego) grows stronger. Let it be. It is the mind/ego, little helpless child dancing in the mind. So what? We stared at it for centuries, now we are aware of it, know what it is and why, and we really don’t have to play with it no more. Because whenever we play with it, it plays us. That is the game 🙂 Accept it for what it is, a part of us we used to know, like an old, close friend who you grew apart with and really have little to share with these days. Of course, he is here but you don’t see him that often. The two of you are interested in different things – and that is okay. At first it is hard to separate, but when one allows/forgives himself the End of the relationship and not being perfect (friend), it fades away. Like a dream. I believe that the way to let go of Ego dominance, is to accept his crying voice in our mind and not feel guilty or not – perfect because of it.
The older I am, the more I understand – from within,- Krishnamurtis’s words,- Truth is a Pathless land.
Gassho dear Sean:)

I love Krishnamurti and often think that he said everything that needed to be said when he dissolved The Order of the Star. Pathlessness! The way is not ever really a way.

One of my evolving understandings – and with which I part a little from Helen Schucman’s scribing – is that the ego is less a thing to be feared (she really fired up its horrifying – albeit illusory – nature) than to be pitied. It reminds me of a lost child desperately trying to manage an experience that is so far beyond its ken. Nobody takes direction from a lost six-year old! So yes, the “little helpless child dancing in the mind.” We are as one in this.

Inasmuch as Loving – with a capital, not a lowercase, L – is essentially seeing without judgment (can I say that, that way?) then yes, we must Love our allness – desires, obsessions, fears etc. In a way, fear and guilt and are only problems when we name them and decide they belong here and not there. Otherwise, it’s just a sort of interior mosaic, no one element superior to and all related to the others.

Or perhaps I am waxing literary . . .

Oh and I like very much the ego as a sort of old friend with whom one maintains infrequent – and getting less so all the time – contact. The new friend is so much nicer . . .

Krishnamurti really tried to give something – Real – to us. A very compassionate man. One has to have true, all- encompassing compassion for Life, to understand that the things we fear or praise cannot be integrated, only those we Love.
Yes, Loving – you lovely described as – Seeing without judgement. When we do not judge, we do not attach. We accept everything as it is. Like a child does, but (this time) with awareness of who we are, of soul and self. Ego is just a school for moral growth, for learning, for experiencing the Idea of morality, ‘right and wrong’. But the most important lessons in school are Love and Compassion. Of course, Truth, but Love is major, No one leaves the school, without it 🙂
In our dealing with ego, I hope we will be able to see it without judgement and to feel compassion. As we will for every part of our existence, if we are to be united with Love.
Strange storm in Zagreb during the night. Half an hour of such force and spirit. It was as if we were caught up in a wave of water and breathe. A beautiful feeling. I thought to myself, this is it. God has come to take us within – in our dreams. In the morning – Sun 🙂

Thank you, as always, Zrinka. It is true we don’t leave school without learning love – which is, in the end, beyond learning. It’s kind of like we realize that we never needed school in the first place.

The Infinite a sudden Guest
Has been assumed to be –
But how can that stupendous come
Which never went away?

Storms are fine but I am glad the sun came for you and your flowers. My bluets have arrived, among the most – if not the most – precious of all blossoms to me. Many many years ago I gave them a private name and think of it whenever I see them in their little bunches, fluttering in breezy sunlight. Much havoc has been wreaked in life because of naming but I cannot resist. Perhaps in another life – another love? – I will resist the impulse better. For now . . . my beloved blooms – and their secret name – are here.

*Bluets* – what a beautiful sound! …. Well, there is divine in the naming also – names are like prayers – they can open many secret doors. If you resisted the impulse better, – you wouldn’t be a poet and there would never be poems about Beloved ones:) Why would one resist – Poetry:)

Sean, thank you so very much. Just what I needed to hear today. Truly an inspiration from the Holy Spirit. When in the world do you have time to write all of this? Whatever, I am eternally grateful.
Tria

As usual, this posting really helped me. The comments from your other readers always helps me, too!
I am reading Tara Singh’s book, “Nothing Real Can be Threatened.” It is the first of his that I’ve read, but won’t be the last. I looked him up based on your comments about him, and I also bought Krishnamurti’s book “Freedom from the Known.” One thing Tara Singh said in his book that helps me is that when we judge, we DRAW CONCLUSIONS about events, situations or people. I had never thought of it in that light, and since I read that, I’ve found that I do that all of the time. It is from my drawing of conclusions that I experience the fear and worrying that I do — of the unknown, of what I am afraid will happen (or not happen) in the future. As the Course says, I do not know what anything, including this, means, and so I do not know how to respond to it! Thanks to Tara Singh, I now have a deeper understand of what that statement means.
Gardening is in full swing now! Take care.

Hey Aleta. Nice to hear from you. I’m glad the gardening is going well. We’re trying lavender this year – it’s been sort of a bust in years past but I can’t quite get over my longing for it so . . . the usual, and then lavender too.

I’m glad you’re enjoying Singh. It is hard for me to express how meaningful his teaching has been. He brings great clarity and love to the Course. Once I was exposed to his light, it was like the whole Course was born again. For me it has been a real blessing, one that often brings me to tears.